960406

30 armed men

held in Jalalabad

ISLAMABAD: Afghan authorities have arrested a group of 30 armed men in mysterious circumstances in Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Saturday.

AIP said their documents and interrogation revealed them to be on the payroll of the office of the United Nations Mediation Mission for the strife-torn country, led by envoy Mahmoud Mestiri.

The armed men were followers of the religious leader Molvi Agha Tarakhel and came from Laghman province with instructions to "wait for orders", the agency said.

AIP said the presence of heavily armed outsiders on rim of the capital city of peaceful Ningarhar province made citizens suspicious and uneasy. On April 1 the province's nominally independent ruling Shura (council) disarmed and detained the group, the agency said.

Afghan analysts in Pakistan said the event put in doubt Mestiri's plan to move his office from Islamabad to Jalalabad next week to be closer to Kabul.

Molvi Tarakhel's Shura-e-Tafahum (council for reconciliation) has been cooperating closely with Mestiri, whose mission stalled when the anti-government Taleban movement denied his statement in Kabul on Wednesday that it was ready to negotiate peace with embattled Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.